Jo and Lightning

Overview

Lightning constantly mistakes Jo for a guy, much to her chagrin.

Jo and Lightning are both proud jocks, who often clash because they both feel that they are the better contestant. The latter also commonly mistakes the former for a male, something Jo does not take lightly, confronting him about it at every opportunity. Despite their ongoing conflict, they try to work together in Total Drama: Revenge of the Island and Total Drama All-Stars, however their dislike for each other often gets in the way.

In Total Drama: Revenge of the Island, Jo and Lightning butt horns even before Jo is transferred to the Toxic Rats in Runaway Model. After the switch, the two of them battle for leadership over their team, and eventually find themselves as the only surviving members of the Rats. After the merge, the two team up for a brief period of time, only for Jo to betray Lightning, leading to a bitter rivalry. Their conflict culminates in the struggle for Cameron's loyalty, with Lightning trying to encourage Cameron, who is constantly bullied by Jo, to stand up for himself. Together, they manage to vote off Jo in Up, Up And Away In My Pitiful Balloon. In the finale, Jo is the only person to support Lightning over Cameron, though she still thinks it should have been her competing.

Jo and Lightning both return for Total Drama All-Stars, and their conflict follows suit as they are placed on the same team. Jo immediately rallies her team to vote off Lightning during his absence, and succeeds after their team loses due to Lightning's mistake.

When Jo beats Lightning to the finish line, she sarcastically apologizes to him for losing to a girl. For the first time in the season, Lightning gets Jo's gender wrong, insisting that he didn't lose to any girl.

When Lightning and Jo are climbing a mountain, Jo tells Lightning that he'd lose to a girl again. Just like in Bigger! Badder! Brutal-er!, Lightning gets Jo's gender wrong again, insisting once again that he wouldn't lose to a girl.

When Jo switches to the Toxic Rats and declares it to be her team, Lightning is excited that "team dude" would remain all dudes, once again thinking that Jo was a guy. In response, Jo pokes his eyes and tells him to "get his eyes checked."

Throughout the episode, Jo is annoyed with Lightning for thinking that she is a guy. She later decides to form an alliance with him, with their first goal being to eliminate Brick. When the contestants arrive at the mine, Lightning reiterates that he is on an all-guys team. In response, Jo asks if he is blind and is about to tell him that she is really a girl, before Chef throws a backpack at her and cuts her off. Just as the Rats arrive at the elevator first and Lightning cheers triumphantly, he causes a cave-in that covers himself and his other two teammates, which angers Jo. Later, after Lightning causes Brick to drop the fireflies, he and Jo run off to chase them down. Jo eventually catches them by shoving the jar onto Lightning's head to trap them, and makes fun of him for it. After their badges turn orange (indicating they have 15 minutes left) Jo expresses regret that she never kissed a guy; Lightning mistakes her for a homosexual and states that he wouldn't judge her. During the mine cart ride out of the toxic mine, Jo clings onto Lightning in terror. Their team goes on to lose, and they both vote Brick off.

Jo rudely awakens Lightning while he dreams of winning the Super Bowl.

When Lightning is still sound asleep on the raft, apparently dreaming that he had just won the Super Bowl, Jo wakes him up by kicking him off the raft and into the water. Later, when she orders Lightning to start paddling, he questions who made her the boss, only for Jo to say that if he doesn't row, he won't be captain of their "rowing team". This causes Lightning to start rowing, regardless of being bossed around. Later, when they are attacked by the giant squid, Jo repeatedly hits Lightning in the face with their raft's mast, even though she is trying to hit the squid instead. When they reach the swamps, Jo abandons Lightning when he is attacked by mutant alligators and reaches the clearing, only to realize that she needed Lightning as he has the metal detector. Once Lightning arrives, Jo finds the chest and unlocks their chains, winning the challenge and saving Gwen.

In the confessional, Jo decides that, despite the merge, she would keep Lightning around for a little while longer just to intimidate the others. Jo is once again annoyed when Lightning calls her a guy and punches her in the arm. When Lightning finds the first key and runs off with it, Jo is annoyed that he didn't give it to her, stating that the spoils should go to the boss. She starts reconsidering her decision to keep Lightning around, saying that he might have outlived his usefulness after all.

Jo betrays Lightning, fanning the flames of their rivalry.

Later on in the challenge, when Lightning finally manages to bend open the bars on their prison door, Jo sacrifices him to save herself by knocking him right into Fang's jaws, distracting Fang and allowing her to get to a go-kart first. When Lightning thinks that he has won the challenge, he instantly declares that he wants to eliminate Jo, only to find out that he did not win the reward since he defiled Mt. Chrismore. At the elimination ceremony, when the real winner is about to make his decision, Lightning insists that he must choose Jo, calling her a "rat".

Lightning grins as he successfully eliminates Jo, with Cameron's help.

Throughout the episode, Jo and Lightning's conflict continues out of a new common goal: Both are fighting for Cameron's loyalty in an alliance first, as his brains prove useful in the challenge. At the very beginning, Lightning tries to ask Cameron for help in building a helicopter, before Jo swipes him up and tells Lightning to "get your own nerd." Jo initially has the tighter grip on Cameron at the beginning, forcing him to build a hot-air balloon for her, convincing him to make a sabotage attempt against Lightning and his vehicle (which fails), forcing him to make a fake confessional in which he is grateful for Jo's help, swiping his fog machine from him after he wins the first half of the challenge, and ordering him to shield her from Heather's attacks during the challenge. Lightning, however, keeps trying to convince Cameron that Jo is playing him and only taking advantage of him for the time being. Ultimately, Cameron decides that Lightning is right and betrays Jo by detonating a bomb he had placed in the fog machine, causing her hot-air balloon to catch fire and crash. At the elimination ceremony, Chris declares that Jo has been eliminated after receiving two votes against her, with those two votes most likely coming from Cameron and Lightning. Before getting catapulted off the island, Jo calls Lightning an idiot for failing to realize that she was a girl the entire time, much to his shock. She yells "In your face, Lightning!" before she is hurled away.

Initially, Jo refuses to support either Cameron or Lightning, but after being forced by Chris to take a side, Jo chooses to support Lightning. She shows disappointment when Lightning loses in Cameron's ending. In Lightning's ending, Jo says her fee is 10% for the million dollars that Lightning won, which he refuses to share with her and the rest of the contestants. Jo then complains in the confessional that she should have won the million since she led bothfinalists to the end.

While Jo pushes the cart with Lightning in it, they decide to form an alliance until the merge, even though Lightning states that he doesn't like her and that she really doesn't like him. Despite the fact that he learned that Jo was a girl when she was eliminated, he continues to call her male.

Jo smiles smugly when Lightning finds out about her campaign to eliminate him.

While Lightning is exiled, Jo persuades the other members of the team that they should vote off Lightning if they lose the next challenge or he would be too strong. Later, Lightning miscounts how many pieces they need to build the statue of Big Ben for his team and after noting that they're missing a piece, he tries to substitute it with a crab and accidentally causes their tower to collapse as a result. Jo becomes very annoyed at his stupidity and insults him.

During the Campfire Ceremony, Jo and Lightning are the bottom two, waiting to see who would get the last marshmallow. It is revealed by Chris that Jo campaigned to get Lightning eliminated, shocking him in the process. In the end, Jo receives the last marshmallow, Lightning becomes shocked as he is sent to the Flush of Shame. He then berates his team for voting off "their strongest player" and swears revenge on Jo as he is flushed away.

Throughout the episode, Jo is scolded by Heather for voting off Lightning, but she insists that his absence will not affect their team's performance. However, upon finding out that she is the last member of her team left during the challenge, Jo admits that voting off Lightning wasn't a good idea in the confessional. Suddenly, a prerecorded message from Lightning pops up, taunting Jo for her mistake. In response, Jo angrily destroys the video screen.